From the Pastor

It is really surprising how fast time flies... we are almost into yet another Easter Season. We can ask ourselves: 'Where has Lent gone? What have I done by way of repentance and conversion to perpare myself for the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus?' Living under the present challenging circumstances of the Coronavirus tragedy, these are very relevant questions. We see the pains we undergo as our sharing in the passion and death of Jesus, which will lead us to the glory of the Resurrection. Let our patient endurance of our present cross be the path to repentance and conversion.

Our present situation does not allow us to celebrate as a community the sacrament of Reconciliation in our traditional reconciliation services. Let us make up for this by added moments of prayer, reading the Word of God and by doing that little extra act of penance, whatever form it may take. Please know that I am available for individual confessions at a time of mutual agreement.

The celebration of Holy Week liturgies is also affected by the restrictions that are in place currently. The Holy Father has allowed the priests to celebrate the ligurgies by themselves, and our Bishop Hanefeldt has given specific directives in this regard. My sisters and brothers, please be assured that I will offer the sacred liturgies in the name of each of you in Reusrrection parish, and pray for every one of you. I will inform through MyParishApp and the bulletin the specifc times I will offer the ligurgies of the Holy Week, so that you can join me in spirit from your homes, as I extend my hands in prayer before the Lord on behalf of all of you. Please make an effort to spend some extra time in pryaer and if possible, watch the live streaming or telecast of the different liturgical services in social media. I will bless the palms on Palm Sunday and keep the blessed palms in the new gathering area; please pick them up at your convenience.

I am putting it very mildly when I say we are so disappointed that we could not dedicate our new church as on schedule. In my Easter letter to you last year I said this: "God willing, we should be celebrating the Holy Week Liturgies next year in our new church." Sadly, this is not to be. Let us accept this huge disappointment as our sharing in the redemptive suffering of Jesus. The Risen Lord will surely allow us to dedicate and use our new church IN HIS TIME, and not in our time. We wait in faith filled hope and expectation of the glorius day.

Now that we have built our new church, it is also our responsibility to maintain it in its pristine beauty, and keep our parish going forward in all its activities to further the reign of the Risen Lord. Our Resurrection parish needs the financial support of each of you, and of every family in our parish towards this end. I know, this calls for some extra sacrifices from everyone at this difficult time. May the Risen Lord help us to be extra generous in this respect, to give till it hurts. Then what Jesus said about the poor widow will be true in our case: "I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all others. For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had-she gave all she had to live on." (Mark 12: 41-44)

In conclusion my sisters and brothers let me wish each of you a very happy Easter. May the Resurrection of Jesus be a celebration of our own rising to new and more enthusiastic life with the Risen Lord. We raise our hands in grateful prayer to the Lord who has helped us realize our dream to build ourselves a new church: "For all Generations." we pray to the Lord for his continued blessings to all of us, so that we can now pay down our church construction debt within a reasonable time frame. May the Peace and Joy which the Risen Lord imparted to his aposltes at his Resurrection, be your blessig from the Lord always.